According to the president, this is why Moscow State University came in third in a recent ranking following Stanford University and the University of Oxford.

MOSCOW, January 10. /TASS/. Global rankings have begun to evaluate Russian universities more objectively, President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with Moscow State University head Viktor Sadovnichy.

According to the president, this is why Moscow State University came in third in a recent ranking following Stanford University and the University of Oxford.

“They have become more objective,” the president said commenting on the MSU head’s statements regarding the high demand for the university’s graduates. Sadovnichy noted that for the first time in the history of Russian and Soviet universities one of them had been ranked third as far as the quality of education goes.

“This has never happened before. This is a very positive evaluation as Moscow State University has come in third among thousands of the world’s universities. Stanford and Oxford rank first and second while we are in third place. We have never received such a high ranking before,” the MSU head stressed.

Sadovnichy also said that Putin’s directives to set up a Moscow-based international ranking had been fulfilled. “In September, we will put forward the first results. We discussed it at a meeting of the Council for Science and Education, we will announce our rankings which will include foreign universities as well,” the MSU head noted.

He went on to say that Moscow State University successfully completed the 2016 academic year. According to Sadovnichy, at present, over 50,000 people study at the university including post graduates and over 35,000 students. “Last year, 10,000 students graduated from the university, this year the number of graduates is expected to be 7,500, a quarter of those being ‘A+’ students,” the MSU head elaborated.

He also told the president that MSU had completed a number of “very good projects” related to the establishment of the University’s grammar school. Its building has been constructed and talented children from all over Russia have been enrolled. “We just have to put into operation a hostel that has 3,000 beds, and a new medical center has also been commissioned which rivals Europe’s best medical centers as far as equipment is concerned. The Shuvalov and the Lomonosov buildings and a library have also gotten up and running. This means, buildings with a total area of one million square meters had been constructed in five to seven years,” Sadovnichy said while talking on the university’s development program. – TASS.